Introduction post

[dolorosa_12]

My name is Ronni. I'm an Australian woman, in my forties, and live in the UK.

Elsewhere online, you can find me at:

Wordpress: dolorosa12 (long-form reviews)
Archive of Our Own: Dolorosa (fic)
Instagram: ronnidolorosa (photos of nature, food, drink, books, people)
Goodreads: Dolorosa (book logging, mainly for my own records)

Please feel free to add me on any of these platforms. If I don't recognise your name (i.e. if it doesn't match your Dreamwidth name), I will not add you back unless you let me know who you are.

Friending policy

Feel free to subscribe and add as you like. I generally won't add people back unless they introduce themselves (or unless we met in a friending meme or similar), so please do feel free to say hello, either in the comments of this post, or elsewhere.

Transformative works policy

I give blanket permission for anyone to remix, translate, or create fanworks inspired by any of my fic, as long as my fic is acknowledged and linked to. There's no need to ask me for permission, although it would be great to have a link to anything you create.

Linking policy

Almost all of my posts are public, and please feel free to link these public posts (with attribution) on your own journal or Dreamwidth comms.



I'm an Australian immigrant to the UK. I immigrated in 2008 to do an MPhil, and then PhD, in medieval Irish literature, at the University of Cambridge. While I realised that academia definitely wasn't for me, I fell in love with the place, and basically never left. After a series of part-time entry-level jobs in libraries during my PhD, I moved into a career in academic librarianship. I work in one of the faculty libraries at the University of Cambridge. My job mostly involves teaching classes on research/academic skills to university students, researchers, and healthcare professionals. I really love teaching, and have found librarianship to be a profession which perfectly suits my interests, skills, and temperament.

I'm married to Matthias, a German immigrant to the UK. He's been in Cambridge since undergrad, and we met when we were postgraduate students in the same department. Like me, he left medievalist academia after finishing his PhD for librarianship, and he works in another Cambridge faculty library. Between the two of us, we have five passports (for four different countries).

I came to fandom comparably late — I've been online since 2007. My first foray into online fandom was two forums for two different books series: Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and Isobelle Carmody's Obernewtyn series. Although most of us have since drifted away from those two forums, and barely talk about the fandoms that brought us together, the friends I met through those two forums ('sraffies' and 'Obernetters' respectively) are still some of my closest, and the sense of community I found in those two platforms remains the (high) standard by which I judge all fannish communities.

After drifting through Livejournal and Tumblr, I found my ideal fannish home on Dreamwidth, and it's remained very much my online home base ever since. Most of my fandoms are small (think Yuletide-eligible) book fandoms, and it's very rare that I meet other people who share my fannish interests. For this reason, I've found it more helpful to connect with people who share common outlooks and ways of engaging with fandom, rather than common fandoms. I'm in fandom for conversation and community, with a preference for slower-moving, long-form blogging, rather than the rapid-fire, real-time reactions that you get on more fast-moving platforms. I like commenting, and receiving and responding to comments on my own posts. I've found over the years that I tend to connect better with people whose Dreamwidth journals are a good mix of real-life reflections, reviews/meta/fannish discussion, and links to interesting things, rather than people who are all fandom all the time, or people whose journals are solely links to their fic.

Once I'm fannish about something, those feelings tend never to go away, so my list of fandoms is ever expanding. This is a non-exhaustive list:

Pagan Chronicles series — Catherine Jinks

Romanitas trilogy — Sophia McDougall

Galax Arena, and the Space Demons trilogy — Gillian Rubinstein

The novels of Victor Kelleher

The Bone Season series — Samantha Shannon

His Dark Materials trilogy and the Sally Lockhart mysteries — Philip Pullman

The Benjamin January mysteries — Barbara Hambly

Spinning Silver — Naomi Novik

Winternight trilogy — Katherine Arden

Six of Crows duology — Leigh Bardugo

Dominion of the Fallen trilogy (and novellas) — Aliette de Bodard

The Lions of Al-Rassan — Guy Gavriel Kay

Juniper and Wise Child — Monica Furlong

The Demon's Lexicon trilogy — Sarah Rees Brennan

A Memory Called Empire — Arkady Martine

Terra Ignota series — Ada Palmer

Roma Sub Rosa series — Steven Saylor

Crossroads and Court of Fives trilogies — Kate Elliott

The Silence of the Girls — Pat Barker

The characters of Briseis and Chryseis in the Iliad (and various adaptations/retellings — barring The Song of Achilles, which I really dislike)

I'm also kind of broadly fannish/always happy to talk about folktales, fairytales and mythology, medieval Irish literature, Cirque du Soleil, and the eclectic variety of music I enjoy. I watch a lot of TV, but for the most part I don't tend to get involved in TV fandoms: my fannish feelings are pretty much exclusively absorbed by books.

My journal tends to be a mixture of book, TV and film reviews, slice-of-(my) life (I like cooking, gardening, swimming, wandering around in the fens, yoga, and travelling), links to interesting things (both fannish and non-fannish), and the occasional politics post (mainly British or Australian politics). I do my best to encourage comments and discussion, and am always happy to get comments on older posts.

Comments

[falena]

I love intro posts, I usually learn something new even with long-time friends. Yours was especially nice to read to, because I just like the way you write. This left me wondering what the fifth passport you guys have, lol, I just can't work it out. Don't know if you feel comfortable telling me, though, if you don't just ignore me.

[trepkos]

Are you watching HDM on TV? If so, how do you feel about the interpretation?
Also, that's a fabulous lot of passports!

[charlottenewtons]

I love reading intro posts, it's always interesting to see what people say about themselves. You have an impressive amount of passports! I have some family in Australia who I'm hoping to visit at some point in the future.

[chestnut_pod]

So lovely to see a blanket permission statement! I am just old enough in fandom years to remember the great podfic permission wars, and it still gives me a little glow of happiness to see one :)

I can't wait to read through your fics in those little and sadly little-loved fandoms like TDIR and and the beautiful Monica Furlong books! I do remember where I recognized your name from now -- I think many years ago I read your story "Weaving the Bones" and it really stuck with me.

Also, I followed you on GoodReads (name there starts with a B), as following folks there is one of my primary channels for finding new book recommendations.

[mific]

Hi there - here from the Interesting Blogs post partly as I enjoy reviews that point me at things I wouldn't have discovered otherwise. I'm also from downunder, but across the pond in NZ.

[scintilla10]

Hello! Just subscribed to you. (But no pressure to subscribe back - just wanted to say hi.)

I love multiple things from your list here, including A Memory Called Empire, GGK, Kate Elliott, and Monica Furlong (it's been years since I've reread Wise Child!). Looking forward to discovering more interesting things through your posts. (Also, fellow academic librarian here! *waves*)

[lowhours]

hello! We bumped into each other talking about children's books, and I've subscribed to you/granted access, feel free to undo(?) that if you aren't comfortable with it!

I very recently reread taronga by victor kelleher, and have had no motivation to talk about it publicly because WHO ON EARTH HAS ALSO READ IT BESIDES HATERS ON GOODREADS? well, possibly you! I enjoy scifi/fantasy generally but am very on/off with my fiction reading and blogging, so hopefully being subscribed to some good influences on that front will help me, lol.

[vriddy]

Hi! I came across your "fannish links" post on my Network page and learned a couple of things from it, and enjoyed your writing clicking around some more so I thought I would say hi and follow! It looks like we're island neighbours, too. My own journal is perhaps too fandom-focused considering your preferences, but don't mind me occasionally popping in and commenting :)

[dreamersdare]

Wandering over from Snowflake, and honestly, I think I'm going to steal your fandoms list for my 'to read' pile. Because the books on there that I do know, I enjoyed very, very much (I love Naomi Novik all round, but Spinning Silver was a particular favourite ♥). And I always need more to read!

Thanks for that unexpected bonus! :)

[spikedluv]

Hi! Here from Snowflake. The only book I've read on your list is Spinning Silver, which I enjoyed tremendously. I'm going to bookmark this post so I can check out the other series.

I lied, but is it really a lie if you barely recall what happened? I have read one of His Dark Materials and Sally Lockhart. I believe I have the full DM series hidden away somewhere, so I should read that whole series.

Thank you for what will surely be some interesting reads.

I also love DW (over, say, Tumblr) for the ability to comment and have discussions.

[waterfall8484]

Hi! I'm looking through the Snowflake replies, we don't seem to have a lot of fandoms in common but you seem like an interesting person and your outlook on fandom and DW seems pretty similar to mine. Mind if I friend you?

Hello!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I'm in fandom for conversation and community, with a preference for slower-moving, long-form blogging, rather than the rapid-fire, real-time reactions that you get on more fast-moving platforms. <<

Same here. I really, really don't fit into small spaces. So if you like the longer, conversational posts sometimes with extensive crosstalk in comments, drop by my blog and see if you like it. Cooking and gardening are other things we have in common, so check my Food, Recipe, and Gardening tags.

[ruric]

Hi - here from Snowflake to subscribe as I'm looking to widen my reading cicle! Look forward to reading more of your posts.

[boxofdelights]

Hello! I am enjoying reading back through your tagged book reviews, and subscribing in order not to miss any.

[kiestan]

Hello! I've been reading your post on scams and the links you included in it. It's so interesting and I'm very curious about the thoughts you pen down in your journal. :D I've just stumbled upon your page but I hope you don't mind if I subscribe!!

[your_insomnia]

Hi,

Saw your post @ Snowflake friending challenge. Love so many of the books on the list, especially the Six of Crows Duology :) (is Kaz your favorite?)

[spikedluv]

Hi! One of the things I like about this particular challenge is that you not only meet new friends, but are reintroduced to old ones. My brain is a seive and I need the reminder, sadly. o_O

You included this on your list twice The characters of Briseis and Chryseis in the Iliad (and various adaptations/retellings — barring The Song of Achilles, which I really dislike), so I'm guessing you REALLY didn't like The Song of Achilles. *g*

[cultofbronte]

I really enjoyed reading this, I'm loving sneak peeks into peoples fandom lives! Hello from another mythology fan. Can I ask why you really dislike Song of Achilles? It's on my TBR and I'm seeing such mixed reviews about it that it's making me wary.

[hoarmurath]

Hi! Saw your Snowflake challenge stuff and you sound cool, so, subscribing. :) We don't have very many overlapping fandoms, but I often enjoy reading about fandoms and things I don't know about.

In relation to the Iliad - I actually read Maya Deane's Wrath Goddess Sing recently, the premise of which is that Achilles is a transwoman (and not the only one in the book). The author did a lot of different neat things in my opinion (save perhaps for the vaguely sympathetic Agamemnon) and I enjoyed it. Briseis is actually a transman in it and in my opinion was a very cool character. My friend read it and I asked to read it based on her review. Perhaps something interesting to check out, but if not, that's cool too.

[lebateleur]

Heya--I saw you pop up on the Snowflake Friending meme, and as we have several mutuals I figured I would subscribe!

[tsuki_no_bara]

i have read exactly none of the books on your list. >.< i've read a couple of guy gavriel kay's other books (a song for arbonne which i loved and the last light of the sun which i didn't, and i guess you could include tigana altho i just could not finish it) and i read pat barker's regeneration trilogy. i just saw the silence of the girls mentioned someplace tho, so at least it's a vaguely familiar title. so this is like a whole new reading list for me! and i love book recs.

[draftissue]

hi! i found your blog through people i’m subscribed to and i really enjoy reading your posts and book reviews. i want to expand my network here on dw, so hope it’s ok to subscribe !

i’m still figuring out what i want my journal to be - a little bit of review writing, a little bit of a personal diary? - but hopefully it’s of some interest :)

[ashelterofpages]

Hi there! Someone I know mentioned your Friday posts and it made me nostalgic for when I'd do a Friday thing. Then I came over here to see who you were and you seem like a lovely human, so I went ahead and added you/decided to say hi. <3 Thank you for trying to foster community and just seeming to be a neat person.